Salomon`s Harris Will Join Lazard

J. Ira Harris, the flamboyant investment banker in charge of Salomon Brothers Inc.`s Chicago office, will leave the firm Monday to open a local branch of Lazard Freres & Co.

Harris, 49, is probably Chicago`s best-known investment banker and is credited with helping build the city`s reputation as a corporate finance center. He has been with Salomon since 1969.

Harris will establish Lazard Freres` first U.S. office outside New York, a Lazard spokesman said.

Lazard is a 140-year-old, private investment banking firm with affiliates in London and Paris. The firm has received attention in recent years for its role in advising labor groups at United Airlines and other companies on attempted corporate buyouts.

Harris will become a general partner at Lazard. He will bring along two other Chicago-based Salomon veterans: William Gottschalk, who will become a general partner, and Jeffrey Golman, named a vice president.

Harris was a senior executive director at Salomon. He has been outspoken politically and is known as an energetic fundraiser for charity.

Among the deals in which Harris played a key role were IC Industries`

acquisition of Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers, the Pritzker family`s purchase of McCall`s magazine, Esmark Inc.`s acquisition of Playtex, and Walter E. Heller & Co.`s purchase of American National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago.

Harris` move was announced by Michel David-Weill, a Lazard senior partner and member of the firm`s founding family, and Felix Rohatyn, partner in charge of investment banking.

``We are delighted to have a banker of Harris` stature and experience join our firm,`` Rohatyn and David-Weill said in a statement.

``Felix (Rohatyn) and I have been friends for 15 years,`` Harris said.

``For 13 of them, we`ve talked about how much fun it would be if the two of us worked together. We have a mutual respect for each other`s philosophy in dealing with clients.``

Lazard chose to open the Chicago operation because of Harris, a native New Yorker who has become a die-hard Chicagoan.

Associates of Harris said he was concerned that the timing of his departure would reflect badly on Salomon, which has been troubled internally. In 1983, Harris resigned as a member of Salomon`s executive committee, saying he wanted to pursue investment banking full-time.

They said his decision to leave wasn`t related to Salomon`s morale problems. But they acknowledged that Harris thought Salomon had grown too big and impersonal, and that he was dissatisfied with its short-term approach in dealing with clients. Harris wanted a firm that maintained longer-standing relationships with customers, they said.

The office will open Monday at 2 N. LaSalle St. Eventually, Harris said, he expects the branch to include ``six to eight top professionals.``

Even though Lazard hasn`t had an office here, the firm`s presence has been felt in Chicago. Franklin Raines, the city`s financial adviser, is a senior vice president at Lazard and splits his time between City Hall and New York.

Lazard officials, particularly Rohatyn, have been openly critical of corporate raiders and junk bond-financed takeovers as threats to the nation`s economic and social well-being.

The firm said last year it would try to raise $2 billion to help target companies fend off unwanted suitors.

Lazard has 600 employees in New York.

Salomon has been buffeted by rumors that it may be the target of a raid to oust its chairman, John Gutfreund. Salomon has denied the rumors.

Some Wall Street observers have predicted that Salomon`s most talented executives would begin defecting once their 1987 bonuses, which are expected to be disappointing, were in hand.

Analysts expect Salomon to report a fourth-quarter loss and a sharply lower profit for 1987. The firm was hurt by a rapid expansion and the market crash.